The Ballads of Mr. Reindeer ::

When the night comes, Mom always tells me not to go outside.
It's full of stranger, and also mean creatures, she said to me.
Night is the time we have to go to bed, and let the fairy mother put a cast to make us have a good dream, she continued.

What if I don't want to go to bed? I asked her.

Oh, you sure don't want to see fairy mother get angry at you. She could cast you a good nightmares for the rest of your life.

..umm, well, I don't want to have nightmares, Mommy, it makes me scared..

No, no, there's nothing to worry, Dear, Mommy's here..

Then she laid me to the bed, and covered me with a blanket.

Good night, Dear.., she kissed my forehead.

Good night, Mommy..

She went out of my room without turning the light off. I don't want to sleep in the dark. You know, when the room is dark, the monsters can come out from under the bed without being noticed. They can hide in the cupboard to surprise you next time you open it. Or put a bubblegum on your chair, so when you sit on it, the next thing you know is your pants stick with the chair. Or change your clothes with your sister's. And the worst thing is: they can steal your toy. Or change your Marvin, the manically depressed robot, with your sister's perfect couple: Barbie and Ken.

That's why I don't want Mommy to turn the light off. So I can sleep without being afraid of the monsters that hide under the bed.

But this night, the light just went off. Strange, Mommy never puts it off before I already sleep.

Mommy, is that you?

There's no answer.

..Mommy? I'm scared..

There's still no answer, until I hear a chuckle and a voice someone I don't know say,

Hi there, little buddy. Do you want to go out and play with me?

Who are you? I never recognize it voice before. Surely it's not Mommy's or Daddy's or my sister's, or my friend Annemarie. Then whose voice is it?
It scared the most of you when someone you don't know enter your room without your permission, plus you can't even see him!

..ummm, are you one of the monsters under the bed? I guessed.

(chuckles) ha-ha, good guess, Kiddo! I'm one of them for sure!

Monster! That thing should make me scared, but when you think about how the monster could do something with the tricky bubble gummy thing, and your sister clothes, your toy, and your Marvin - the manically depressed robot - exchanged with your sister's Ken and Barbie, you sure want to try everything to prevent him doing it. Besides, I don't like him called me "Kiddo". I know I still a kid, but I just don't like being called "Kiddo".

So I stand up beside my bed, holding a pillow in my left arm as a shield if he throws something at me, and a pencil in my right hand to stab him right in the eyes so he can't see where my toy box are.

Hey, take it easy, I just stop by, I don't want to steal your toy either.

No, I won't trust you. The reason why you called them monster is because they tells you nothing but lies.

I keep walking straight ahead to the source of the voice. I thought I hit the wall, but when I think about it again, my wall doesn't feel warm and furry.

Yikes! It's the monster!

He catches my body and then lifts me up in front of his face.
He's big. I can't see it clearly because of the darkness, but I think he's eight-foot tall. It's gigantic for a five years old boy like me. I'm only three-foot-seven-inches tall.

His eyes are shining in the dark, it's black all over his eyes.

Let me go! I said to him. It needs a lot of courage for me, my body is trembling and I can do nothing to stop it.

Hmm, hmm, what should I do now.. should I eat you?

Mommy, help me, a monster is going to eat me! But no voice's coming out from my mouth.

..yeah, why not? I'm a bit hungry now. They say a five-year-old-boy's meat is the best one.

He opens his mouth and shows his big-white-and sharp teeth right in front of my face!

Get back you monster! I try to push his mouth with my pillow shield. Suddenly I remember that I have my pencil-sword in my right hand, so I stab him.

..GRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUU, he screams loudly when I stab his left eye. He drops me to the floor, and runs to the window. He opens it quickly and gone out into the green plain field.

I rise up from the fall and close the window so he can never enter my room again. From the window, I can see him. He is like a reindeer. But his nose is black, not like Rudolph's. He stops under the tree. I think he lost his left eye, or he'll be left-blinded, because of me.

Suddenly, I feel sorry for him. So I opened the window and shouts,

Hey Mr. Reindeer, I'm sorry if I hurt your eye.. I mean it, really.

Mr. Reindeer laugh,

Hahaha, it's okay Kiddo. I just played with you back then. You're quite a brave boy actually. Nice to know you..

So Mr. Reindeer goes down the hill, until I finally can't see him.

I close the window again and go back to the bed.

And then I fall asleep again..